Hartnell out 4-8 weeks with broken foot

PHILADELPHIA - Through five seasons of ups and downs and stops and starts, Scott Hartnell had grown from a forceful if too reckless power forward to the Flyers’ best goal scorer, and was rewarded handsomely for it in the offseason.

What set Hartnell apart, however, was his durability - only three games missed in those five years. Now Hartnell faces an absence of at least a month and perhaps twice that long with a broken first metatarsal bone in his left foot.

What the Flyers face is the monumental task of losing some early season shakes without the multi-faceted benefits Hartnell brings to the team.

For starters, they’ve brought back veteran Mike Knuble, who failed a tryout with the Red Wings this month but played one game for their AHL affiliate in Grand Rapids Wednesday night before getting a call from Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren Thursday morning.

They’ve reached an agreement on a free agent contract that will be finalized today if and when Knuble passes a physical.

“He’s a good guy,” Holmgren said of Knuble, “a good, big heavy player.”

It’s not that Knuble has put on a ton of weight since he played for the Flyers a few seasons back, it’s just the way Knuble still plays, even at the age of 40.

After a regular season in which he was limited to 72 games, Knuble was asked by coach Dale Hunter to log some heavy minutes in the playoffs last spring, and he responded, scoring two goals and three points in 11 games.

“Obviously, he played on the power play before ... he’s capable of playing in front of the net on the power play,” said Holmgren, not adding that filling that spot - which used to be a Hartnell hangout - would be Knuble’s primary mission.

“I think he’s excited to come back here,” Holmgren added. “There are still a few guys left from when he last played here. ... One of the attractions with him is that he played here.

“Let’s face it. He’s been around the game a long time; a good solid player. ... He isn’t a 20-minute player like he used to be, but he can certainly give us a fair amount of minutes in certain situations. I think he still knows how to play the game. With Washington last year, at the end of the year and in the playoffs, he was playing on a fairly regular basis for them. So it a real good addition for us.”

While playing for the Flyers from 2005-09, Knuble scored 114 goals and 221 points in 310 games. His presence certainly will help on the power play; it won’t replace the missing scoring power of Hartnell, who logged 37 of them last season.

“Scott, he’s a big loss, because of how he plays the game,” Holmgren said. “And to have him out at any length of time is difficult. Whether it’s a month to two months, it’s a tough pill to swallow. But we’ll see what we can do.”

Tom Sestito and Jody Shelley were both in the lineup against the Rangers with Hartnell down and Brayden Schenn serving a one-game suspension for a hit he put on Anton Volchenkov in New Jersey Tuesday. They didn’t play a whole lot, but Sestito wasn’t going to miss out on any opportunities - less than three minutes into the game he engaged in a fight with New York’s Stu Bickle.

Sestito is trying to regain his form after fighting a weird case of the mumps he came up with in mid-December while playing hockey in England.

“A couple of guys on the team over there ended up with them too. I don’t know anyone in the U.S. that’s had it,” said Sestito, who apparently wasn’t alive in the 1960s. “I was pretty sick for about a month. It wasn’t easy. Everything I got (conditioning-wise) over in England I probably lost. But I feel good now and I’m ready to go.

Sestito found out later he’d been vaccinated when he was an infant for mumps. Regardless, he was diagnosed upon a visit to an emergency room of a British hospital Dec. 12.

“It’s about a month since I’ve played,” Sestito said. “But my game doesn’t change much, from the minors to up here.”

NOTES: Danny Briere (wrist fracture) was being re-evaluated during the game. With Hartnell’s loss, it might be more of a push to bring Briere back sooner rather than later.

“He’s getting better,” Holmgren said. “I would say he’s maybe 50-50 on the weekend. I’ll know better after the game.” ... The Flyers cut ties with 2011 free agent signee Niko Hovinan, who was unhappy with his demotion from the Phantoms to the Trenton Thunder last fall. With his departure, the Flyers sent Cal Heeter from the Phantoms to Trenton, giving free agent Brian Boucher and Scott Munroe more time to work together in Adirondack.